She’s not gonna stop ’til she f’s it all up

Everyone thought she was the golden child.  She was young and “from these parts”.  Starry eyed she begin her administrative career.  She knew the community.  Hell, she was part of it.  She knew the movers and the shakers. Her plans were big.  She knew that if she cultivated the friendship of the parents and the students and kept trying new innovations she could make her mark.  The best way to do this was to always tell everyone what they wanted to hear.  That would work. Most of us in education are way too busy to really analyze who said what.  Come on, it was in the best interest of the kids.  We’re all one big happy family, right?

She started with an awe inspiring freshman academy.  She got one year of funding to pay the teachers more.  Why you ask?  Because those teachers had to work their asses off.  The children became no longer responsible for their own grades.  It was up to the teachers.  Teachers gave up half their lunches to tutor those who were failing.  They made up additional assignments to get the students to pass. She bragged in meetings about how teachers would chase students out to their cars to hand them assignments…in high school.   Yes, that’s right.  You heard it here.  In high school. 

When it came to discipline, she would always give that kid another chance.  It would make our numbers of infractions more acceptable.  Less kids in disciplinary actions=safer school.  Give the kid a coke and send him back to class.  One student in particular had been in ISS the year before pretty much every other week.  When I asked why he was still with us (yes, he was known by everyone to be in the drug user category) the reply was that he actually could graduate on time, so we needed him to help us  meet AYP.  You gave another kid some weed that caused him to have convulsions?  Well, you didn’t kill anyone, and your mom and dad are nice people….so you can go to alternative school, no out of school suspension for you.  A weed pipe? That should just be a day or two in alternative school.  We don’t want to be on the dangerous school list!

Back to  the academy…this institution led to a general malaise among students.  Teachers were now required to make sure the kids passed.  You’ve been in ISS 32 times?  It’s ok, your teacher will make sure you get to make up all your work.  A student told me, it’s not my fault I failed, it’s you teachers.  You are the ones responsible.

Did you get in trouble today at school? Do I know your mom or dad?  If you are a poor ethnic kid, forget it.  You’ll get what you deserve.  But if your mom is on the  junior league, your kid is on my kid’s soccer team, or I went to school with your parents, you’ll be fine.

And then idea after idea kept pooring from the golden child’s head.  First….she must be first…and excel….”must make a name for myself…”

Wait, she had it–let’s adjust the class standing.  Let’s not give points to kids for trying harder classes.  If you take every lower level class you can, you actually could outrank a kid who took all ap or honors classes. 

And another great idea: let’s offer advanced science classes to freshmen.  No one else is doing it.   We’re not prepared, but let’s do it.  We just won’t tell them that it will affect their class standing.  And the next year we’ll dump them into the hardest advanced class ever with an inexperienced teacher.  Great idea.  Everyone is on the road to success.

And then let’s call everyone college prep.  But what we’ll do is we’ll put all the lower level kids into a separate class from the average and above average student.  We’ll call it the same thing, but we’ll bend the truth and code it so only we know which class is which.  The kids and the state will never figure it out.

And let’s have the teachers who are friends with students on facebook, who are always in trouble for some infraction, who waste class time playing practical jokes on each other go on field trips with students because they are popular.  It’s ok if they lose a few students at a museum.  Being well liked is the most important thing here…it’s about the kids…right?

And well, you’ve seen the previous post about the gifted money certification….

She’s really not going to stop until she f’s it all up…..

Creative Thinking and the Spin Doctors

Usually creative thinking in school evokes images of students producing a product or demonstrating a way of thinking that is unusual and highly praised by teachers.  It is often best evidenced in a science or an English classroom.  In science you can offer a student an invitation to design a product that fulfills a certain purpose and perhaps they construct a water filter made from unusual materials that actually works as well as any Brita filter.  Or in English class a student may write a short story showing connections between varying subject matter and in a style worthy of a graduate student. 

I am here to say that most of the creative thinking in schools is done by those in charge of county policy, not by our students.  You may argue, aren’t teachers the ones who are creative?  Thoughts of differentiation with 5  lesson plans per class to address all the varying levels, styles, aspirations, dreams, disorders, disabilities, strengths, premenstrual days……of our students….

Yes, teachers should be creative.  That is, unless you teach math.  Math is math, right?  And history never changes, so what’s the point in dressing that pig in a silk dress?  Just make a few worksheets, give a multiple choice test that you give them the answers to beforehand and at least 75% of the class will pass.  Finally, let the loser 25% take the test 2 or 3 more times online (the same questions) to move your pass rate up past 80%, that golden area that lets you escape the watchful eye of administrators.  Yes, ever since No Child Left Behind, teachers have become more creative.   And we are praised for it!  By the administrators….Look….our pass rate is exceeding expectation……

But I digress, let’s talk about county level administrators.  After all, they are the true spin doctors in our story. 

In our state, if an honors or advanced placement class is taught by a teacher who is gifted certified then that school qualifies for additional  funds. Gifted certified teachers are required to take an extensive one year program, with as much work as a masters degree.  The “creative thinkers” in my county decided to let ANYONE teach honors and advanced placement classes.  This set up a dilemma.  Most of these people weren’t certified.  This meant loss of state funds.  In order to circumvent just such an occurence, the county came up with this: instead of the year long intensive twice a week class course that teaches all about gifted students, their requirements, differentiation of instruction, varying assessment strategies and state and national policies, they instituted a 1 1/2 day inservice to allow these uncertified teachers to become certified.

Something doesn’t smell right.  They are purporting to have gifted certified teachers in the classroom with gifted students.  This then would allow more money to flow to the school.  As a teacher who went through the rigorous one year program, I am trying to figure out how these spin doctors did this.  How have they convinced the state that these teachers are truly gifted certified? 

And once the gifted endorsement is on your certificate, it is there for life.  You then appear to have completed a rigorous training that you didn’t.  But, it is the county who approves what goes on  your certificate.  I stood there and watch the lady say, hmmm…looking at your coursework, I’d also certify you for middle grades english, social studies and science…I have a biology degree and a high school life sciences education degree.

So who’s really doing the creative thinking in our schools?  The students, the teachers, the administrators or those even higher up in county administration?